‘So who could be more unjust than one who forges a lie against Allah? … And when you have withdrawn from them and from all that they worship apart from Allah…’—that is, when you parted from them in creed and disavowed whatever they worship besides Him. For they were associating partners with Allah, just as the Friend, Abraham, declared: ‘Indeed, I am utterly clear of what you worship—except for the One who created me, and He will surely guide me’ (al-Zukhruf 26–27).

In the same spirit the youths said to one another: now that you have left your people over their religion, separate from them bodily as well, so that they cannot reach you with any harm. ‘So seek refuge in the cave; your Lord will spread for you of His mercy and will arrange your affair in a way that brings you ease.’ That is, He will cast His covering over you, place you under His protection and care, and make the outcome of your business good—just as the supplication teaches: ‘O Allah, make the end of all our affairs good, and save us from the disgrace of this world and the punishment of the Hereafter.’

The Almighty then described the cave to which they repaired: its entrance faced roughly north while its recesses pointed toward the qiblah. Such an orientation—room toward the south, doorway toward the north—is the most beneficial. He said: ‘You would see the sun, when it rose, incline away…’—another Qur’anic reading states: ‘incline away from their cave to the right—and when it set, pass them by on the left.’ He is telling us that in summer and similar seasons the sun, at its first rising, enters the cave from its western side, then little by little begins to withdraw—this is its inclination to the right—until it rises high in the sky and clears the mouth of the cave. When it inclines toward setting, it begins to enter from the eastern side little by little until sunset, exactly as is observable in such a place. The wisdom in the sun’s entering at certain hours is that the air inside not spoil. ‘While they lay in a spacious hollow within it. That is among the signs of Allah’—their remaining in that state for long years without eating, drinking, or their bodies requiring nourishment is a sign from Allah and a proof of His tremendous power.

‘Whomever Allah guides, he indeed is rightly guided; but whomever He lets go astray—you will never find for him a protecting guide. You would have thought them awake, though they were asleep.’ Some said this was because their eyes were left open so that they would not be damaged by prolonged closure. ‘And We turned them over to the right and to the left’—it is said they were turned once each year from one side to the other, though it could have been more often; Allah knows best. ‘And their dog was stretching out its forelegs at the threshold.’ Shuʿayb al-Jabbāʾī said: their dog’s name was Ḥamrān. Others remarked that al-waṣīd—the threshold